Costa Rica Conservation Project – November 2012

The month of November in Barra Honda National Park marks a complete transformation in technology, environmental protection and animal research. Innovative ideas have proven that with enough time and hard work large sums of money are not necessary for quality results. Not to mention that the staff and volunteers have completely raised the bar on self-sufficiency with renewable energy.

Animal and human waste contains methanogenic archaebacteria that decompose organic materials without oxygen. Storing faeces in a bio-digester allows the use of the decomposition by capturing the gases produced to generate green energy for various uses; i.e. cooking, lighting and feeding combustion engines that produce electric energy.

This new practice is considered by many to be a technology of the future, and its implementation has already improved the quality of life of numerous families and industries. This is by using costless and natural products, enabling a considerable economic gain while helping the protection of the environment.

In Barra Honda, Projects Abroad is implementing this technology. During the past month we received an important part of the materials to be used for the construction of a bio-digester. Volunteers and staff members started the construction of the bio-digester and are hoping to finish it by the end of January 2013. In February 2013, we plan on producing and utilizing the gas.

In other news, a previous volunteer, Philip Bell-Doyon, returned to Barra Honda to run an investigation project. With the assistance of other volunteers and staff members, he documented, photographed and constructed a project split up into five sections: reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds and insects. Thanks to him and the hard work of our volunteers, we now have the names, species and genus of most animals in Barra Honda with their pictures on billboards. These will be beneficial for other volunteers and tourists visiting the park because now the animals are easily identifiable.